Mass. business week in review

Saturday

Oct 27, 2007 at 12:01 AMOct 27, 2007 at 11:18 AM

Includes item on money for fishermen, tribes pushing for casino, data breach and home sales.

Kennedy, Kerry seek $15 million for fishermen

The federal government dealt New England's fishing industry another blow by rejecting economic disaster declaration requests from Gov. Deval Patrick and two other governors. Regulators at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ruled that the economic hardship that many commercial fishermen are facing isn't severe enough to be considered a disaster. Fortunately for them, Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry are still trying to get a bill to provide up to $15 million of federal aid through Congress.

2 tribes join to push for casino in Mass.

The Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe of Martha's Vineyard has hooked up with the Seneca Nation of New York to pursue a casino development in Massachusetts if the Legislature approves casino gaming here. The tribe would prefer to build in Southeastern Massachusetts - potentially putting it in competition with the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, which wants to put a casino in Middleboro. But the Aquinnah tribe is also open to developing one in Western Massachusetts.

Number of victims in data breach doubled

It turns out that the data breach at TJX Cos. may have been much worse than initially feared. Officials representing Visa and MasterCard have said in court filings that at least 94 million bank card accounts may have been compromised. That's up from an estimate of nearly 46 million provided in March by the Framingham-based parent company of discount chains that include T.J. Maxx and Marshalls.

Mass. home sales fall in September

The real estate market in Massachusetts suffered through its worst month so far this year in September, when sales of single-family homes dropped significantly from the same month in 2006. The precise size of the drop varies from 13 percent to 19 percent, depending on the data source. Prices generally stayed flat or experienced year-to-year declines of under 5 percent. Subprime loans and jumbo mortgages have become increasingly tough to get as big financial companies run from investing in mortgage markets.